Weird and creepy, with just the right amount of sapphic plot twists, this book is a hit! I love how this book takes the ordinary and turns it into something else entirely. The plot is original and the idea is stunning! Love this and everything that Rory Power writes!

Super interesting, with the right amount of scary, feminism, thriller, and action. Feminist horror is a great new genre.

Received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

Good storyline-especially since it came out pre-pandemic 2020. I found the beginning kinda slow but at about the halfway mark all the way to end was filled with action! Definitely detailed though regarding how the Tox has affected the various characters. I could visualize the vines, the blood, the little worm thing.

Wilder Girls has a beautiful cover and a fantastically creepy setting. A strange illness called the Tox has spread through the Raxter School for Girls, after teachers and staff begin dying, the school and surrounded wooded island has remained on quarantine until a cure is available.

The story centers around teenage girls in an academia-type setting. The illness is plaguing everyone with fear as it begins to mutate and kill others, including animals. Hetty, the main character, is desperately searching for her missing friend, Bryatt, and while she is led to believe Bryatt is dead, she slowly begins to uncover secrets that start to unravel everything she knows.

I loved the horror, the friendships, the gore, the confusion, and especially the writing. It is mysterious, strange, and moody. I was quite enthralled throughout the book due to the creepiness, and it is quite a unique book in this way.

My only complaint is the ending and lack of a backstory which I feel the book would have really benefited from in order to invest the reader into the story more.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this to lovers of YA and I look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to #netgalley and @DelacortePress for my advanced e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Truly enjoyed this book! I became very attached to the characters right away. Which is great for me, making the book a complete page turner. The twists and turns were fantastic! I hope that someday we get a sequel. Highly recommend this book to anyone who is into an odd read.

I wanted to like this book. I really wanted to. But I couldn't connect with the characters or the plot. It's not a bad book but I personally wasn't interested. I really wished they talked more about the virus than the effects that the virus had on the girls.

"I think I'd been looking for it all my life--a storm in my body to match the one in my head."

Raxter school for girls is isolated and quarantined, nestled in a forest changed by the Tox. The trees grow taller, the animals more vicious, and the people who survive infection are different too--a girl with gills, a silver-scaled hand, two heartbeats in one chest.

As the days stretch on, survival becomes less certain, and each girl more callous, willing to pay in each other's blood for their own lives. There is a deep sense of at least it wasn't me or someone I love.

The comparison to Lord of the Flies was spot on for me. It's not the same story by any means, but that's to be expected in the gender-bend alone, never mind the addition of deadly and devastating mutations. The core question is present in both stories: what will literal children do to survive, and what does that say about us? The answer in both cases seems to be: whatever they are capable of, and nothing good.

At the risk of punning, Rory Power is a powerful voice in YA horror. She proves that the possible and reality adjacent can be at least as unsettling as the paranormal. Her descriptions are visceral, prickling at your skin as new terrors bloom and bleed from each character. While at times stomach-turning, the body horror was so exquisitely executed. But the true horror lies in what we do to each other.

The relationships at the core of this story are what make it all the more horrific. As readers, we're at the center of an unfolding tragedy, in the hearts of three girls with no way out. But their love for each other--while complicated--is fierce and unyielding. It's that love that compels the story forward as they fight not only for themselves but each other.

There are so many things to appreciate about this book, but my favorite was the introspection in the two POVs. Power took a scalpel to what it feels like to be human, digging under the skin to find a creeping truth.

I recommend this book for fans of Annihilation, for the beauty in the horror, and ruthless survival stories that hold nothing back. This book is not gentle with your stomach or your heart.

If only this was as good as the cover is beautiful. It's not a bad story: the three characters are relatively interesting, especially Hetty. The plot moves along at a fairly good clip and at least it's creative and new, if not terribly well executed. The setting was nice and creepy. My problem was that it jumped around a lot, the multiple POVs felt forced, and it seemed like the author wanted to do too much. The Tox was the worst part because it made no sense. Any book with an illness needs to follow basic illness rules to be believable. This thing was all over the place and lost its scariness because of that. I didn't mind this, but I didn't really like it either. But it kept me occupied during jury duty, so...win?

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy of this book. I had really high hopes, and I wanted to enjoy this book, unfortunately the writing style turned out to be not something I enjoyed. Gave up around 30%. I hope someone else will enjoy this book more than me.

5 stars. This was as good as I thought it was going to be. My kind of body horror and weirdness. Review to come.

Due to being a high school teacher, I have been falling behind on reviews. Here are my initial thoughts.

Really interesting and gross at times YA horror that has a post-apocalyptic feel with queer girls and a vague ending. Writing and story felt very unique.

The writing style wasn’t for me. Though I am excited for queer kids to get to see themselves in literature that isn’t just about their queerness or about romance.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC.

I'm not sure why I didn't put my feedback on here. Sorry about that. I read this book in July of 2019 and absolutely LOVED IT! I got the arc via netgalley but then also won a giveaway for it so I have a physical copy.

I originally heard of this book on BookTube and thought it sounded really interesting, and boy did it come through. I really liked the horror aspect of it in regards to what the Tox did to the girls. It gave them deformities such as a second spine, and it's just something i've not seen in a book before. The characters were great and there was queer rep.
Overall it was a really good read, just beware if you don't like gore/death/violence there is a decent amount of that.

Sorry the review isn't the greatest and it's pretty well overdue, I got pretty busy over the last year and a half and have been in quite a bad reading/reviewing slump.

I enjoyed Wilder Girls - it wasn't what I was expecting, but it was interesting and kept me turning the pages.

This was, perhaps, the weirdest book I've read in a while. Confusing, but not in a bad way, more the style that makes you eager to uncover the mysteries. With a narrator that pulls you in to her, makes you become her, share her struggles and desires, it was difficult to put down, despite its, um, unusual content. Absolutely unique, enthralling, and left me feeling glad I had read it, and yearning for more.

Appropriately creepy while not fully a horror story, an excellent thrilling novel about teens, the relationships they form and thrive on, and how they deal with disaster.

This was a slow burn, really insidiously creepy book. Gorgeous cover, lyrical writing, and I wish there was sapphic horror in every book ever published because WOW.

I thought this novel was fantastic. Fits in with my teen readers want of dystopian novels with a thriller twist. Well written with strong characters- I can see this being made into a movie.
Purchased for my high school library and book talked a lot.

I have had a difficult time writing the review for Rory Power's Wilder Girls. I've sat down to write it time and again and nothing I write seems to be enough. Wilder Girls is a powerful story of survival and strength in a scary uncertain time and condition.

There are so many things to love about this story:
- strong women
- a contagious illness with the potential to destroy the world
- a low grade lgbt+ plot line that isn't corny or pandering
- people who fight back

On top of that, writing so good that you can visualize the insanity of the illness overcoming all obstacles. I can't, this story is just too good. It's been added to my beloved books list.

The upside (?) to insomnia last night was reading this delightful Lord of the Flies retelling! I could strongly identify to the claustrophobia of quarantine and isolation (thanks 2020) and the fear of a disease that ravages without pattern. Spooky, gory, and with no easy answers or explanations, Power’s debut is a winner. Perfect for fans of Nick Cutter’s THE TROOP. #netgalley ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️